A top Italian finance official on Tuesday announced that mortgage payments will be suspended across the country shortly after the government took the extreme measure and announced the lockdown of the entire country amid the fight with the coronavirus.
Laura Castelli, the deputy economy minister, made the announcement on a radio station in the country, Reuters reported.
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Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte urged all 60 million Italians to stay home. The only travel allowed will be for proven work reasons, for health conditions or other cases of necessity.
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“Our habits must be changed, changed now. We all have to give up something for the good of Italy. When I speak of Italy, I speak of our dear ones, of our grandparents and of our parents,” Conte said. “We will succeed only if we all collaborate and we adapt right away to these more stringent norms.”
Central banks across the globe are working to soften the economic fallout form the COVID-19 outbreak. President Trump is expected to meet with Senate leadership on Wednesday to discuss a payroll tax cut, small business aid and help for hourly workers who might become sick.
“They’ll be very dramatic,” Trump said of the proposed economic measures during a briefing at the White House. “This blindsided the world and I think we handled it very well.”
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and the Associated Press contributed to this report